Explosion damages apartment building in St Petersburg; local media say it was a drone attack

An "emergency" damaged an apartment building in St Petersburg Saturday morning, Russian authorities said. Russian state news agency Tass said that the damage was caused by an "explosion", while local news and social media said that a drone had hit the building. The Associated Press could not verify these claims.

There were no casualties, St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov wrote on Telegram.

The Mash news site said that the apartment building was hit by a Ukrainian drone.


It published videos appearing to show the moment the apartment building was struck, showing a strong flash of light engulfing one side of the building and fragments of debris flying into the air. Another video showed car alarms going off. The videos could not be immediately verified.

Russia's Defence Ministry has not commented on the incident.